The Coronavirus pandemic has forced the majority of the population to stay quarantined at home. Some people may find it difficult to work from home, especially when confined alone. Thankfully, music can be a good motivational factor, especially when it doesn't cost much. To help people go through the situation, Tidal is offering its paid subscriptions for just $4 for four months.

Over the last few years, Waze has partnered up with quite a large number of music and podcast streaming services to make listening to audio while navigating easier and less distracting. Tidal users can finally join in on the party, as the two companies have announced that they're teaming up to bring playback controls to Waze and turn-by-turn navigation to Tidal.

Starting today, Amazon Music HD promises listeners access to more than 50 million 16-bit lossless high definition songs sampling at 44.1kHz, or the sound equivalent to tracks found on CDs. Subscribers will also have access to “millions” more 24-bit Ultra HD songs sampling at 192kHz, which is the highest audio quality available in the music industry.

Current subscribers can upgrade to Amazon Music HD for free for 90 days.

Amazon already has two music streaming products —Amazon Music (a limited library available to all Prime users) and Music Unlimited (a larger streaming library for $7.99/month). A new report claims the company is working on an additional service intended to directly compete with Tidal.

Since its introduction in 2014, Tidal has been the main provider of high-bitrate music for streaming in the United States. However, the company is more well-known for its controversies — like alleged inflation of subscriber numbers and artists bailing out — than its actual service. Tidal now has some added competition, as French streaming service Qobuz has expanded to the United States.

Tidal tries to stand out among streaming services by offering both hi-fi music quality and access to artists you can't find on Spotify, like Prince and Beyoncé. But in addition to bringing you music from acts you might have forgotten you were missing out on, that also means more exposure to artists you may not want to hear from at all. Now, thanks to the app's latest update, you can mute those artists when listening on Tidal

Yesterday, Plex announced some huge additions and changes to the music side of your media server. These were so important/awesome that I had to get this out to you in case you hadn't seen it yet. Among many things, Plex has added a deep integration with Tidal, some massive mobile player overhauls, an improved shuffle system, discoverability options, and more.

In addition to all the other hardware-related news today, Amazon is also rolling out its multi-room audio feature to third-party hardware. Called Alexa Multi-Room Music, the expanded support for other Alexa-powered devices will allow you to group third-party speakers, including offerings from companies like Bose and Sonos, together with Amazon's Echo hardware for synchronized playback.

TIDAL doesn't have many fans due to its high pricing and general impracticality, but perhaps today's two additions will sway you to reconsider. Jay-Z's music service now supports Amazon Fire TV and Android Auto --- an odd combo, but any additional support is good to hear about.

The Copyright Royalty Board of the U.S. Library of Congress—which determines the licensing fees paid by streaming services to artists (and their publishers)—has reportedly increased the royalty rate from 10.5% to 15.1% of total revenues for the five-year period from 2018 to 2022. Streaming services rely on the compulsory license established under U.S. law rather than negotiate directly with publishers. For comparison, Netflix and Amazon must negotiate with studios for the use of programs, which is why their catalogs are not "all-inclusive" in the way that music streaming services are.